Cary Fukunaga, whose uniform vision deserves as much credit for making True Detective season one a hit as Matthew McConaughey’s performance, is credited as one of the three writers for It, the highest-grossing horror movie of all-time. He was supposed to direct the film, too, but when Fukunaga and New Line didn’t “agree on the kind of movie we want to make,” he left the project (he was replaced by Andy Muschietti). The Beasts of No Nation helmer later explained that he sought to make an “unconventional horror film,” but the studio “wanted me to make a much more inoffensive, conventional script.”
In an interview with GQ, Fukunaga continued to open up about why he departed It two weeks before shooting was supposed to commence. “I think it was fear on their part,” he explained, “that they couldn’t control me.”
“No, they thought they couldn’t control me. I would have been a total collaborator. That was the kind of ridiculous part. It was just more a perception. I have never seen a note and been like, F*ck you guys. No way. It’s always been a conversation.” (Via)
As for his new project, the Netflix series Maniac with Emma Stone and Jonah Hill, Fukunaga said that because the streaming service is driven by data, “they know exactly how their viewers watch things. So they can look at something you’re writing and say, ‘We know based on our data that if you do this, we will lose this many viewers.’ So it’s a different kind of note-giving. It’s not like, ‘Let’s discuss this and maybe I’m gonna win.’ The algorithm’s argument is gonna win at the end of the day. So the question is do we want to make a creative decision at the risk of losing people.” Based on the trippy trailer, the risk won.
(Via GQ)
